Favour for an Enemy
by Tycho
Summary: Draco finds himself in the untenable position of having to ask Harry for a favour. The first part of a much larger saga: Azkaban. Chap 4 now up.
1. A man on the edge

Favour for an Enemy.  
By Tycho tychompx@bigpond.net.au

Summary: Just something that's been floating around in my head, refusing to go away. Draco finds himself in the untenable position of having to ask Potter for a favour. And it's a big 'un! D/G with references to others. This is the first book of a much larger series I've called Azkaban.  
Rating: We'll start at PG-13 and go from there shall we?  
Timeline: During HP's seventh year.

Disclaimer: This is a spell that prevents me from getting sued by JKR for using her characters. Hope it works!

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Harry Potter was having a very hard time concentrating on his Transfiguration Essay. That of course would explain why he was still up at two in the morning trying to finish it. There just seemed to be so much that was just more important than arguing the pros and cons of the many animals most commonly used by animagi. So many other things to worry over, plan for and panic about. Of all of them the escalating war with the Death-Eaters was foremost in his mind. Also Sirius had been missing for months, Hagrid was in mourning - his people had been destroyed after their refusal to join Voldemort, - and although attacks by Dark Wizards were steadily on the increase, the Dark Lord himself had not been seen in person since the previous Christmas.

Black Christmas. The day that Harry's last living relatives had been brutally murdered, the Dark Mark obscenely burned into every available surface. Harry's memory of finding them in what had once been his childhood home, their vital organs splayed out like a museum exhibit, still brought him nightmares. A self-loathing thought found it amusing to frequently rear its head inside his mind: _If only I'd loved them, I could have saved them._

Harry was roused from his musings by a very odd sight. A hand was waving at him through his window. His fifteenth story window. Harry looked away, blinked rapidly to clear the bleariness from his eyes and looked back. The hand was still there, only now it was pointing at him angrily, (Harry had absolutely no doubt that the hand was angry) and motioning him to come to the window. Harry rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to ward off yet another headache. "If that's who I think it is, you can just hover about out there all night."

Unsurprisingly the hand's movement changed from the universal 'come here' gesture to one almost as familiar involving two fingers. Harry laughed. Only one person could own a hand with that sort of attitude. A person he had once counted as his greatest annoyance, but now was. . . . what? A rival? Somehow, over the past year, the nastiness had gone out of their encounters. Even their madhouse antics around Quidditch Pitch during a match had changed to something remotely resembling fun, and Harry found himself actually looking forward to his next match against Slytherin. He walked over to the window and opened it. "You gonna hover about all night out there or are you actually going to come in?"

Draco Malfoy scowled at him from the precarious perch on the narrow rampart below Harry's window. "Very funny, Potter. Now hurry up and levitate me in, will you? It's bloody freezing out here!"


	2. Come into my parlour

Harry leaned over the broad stone that formed the window sill to get a better look. "Well, now. Here's an interesting situation. My greatest rival at my mercy. Do I rescue or let perish? Decisions, decisions!" Harry's grin broadened as Malfoy's scowl grew darker. "I can see the front page of the _Prophet _now: **Malfoy Heir Missing, Gryffindor Tower Gains New Gargoyle!"**

"You're a real comedian, Potter, now BRING ME IN!" 

Harry pulled away, mumbling something that Draco couldn't quite hear, but the words 'grouchy' and 'Slytherin' were involved. Moments later, he was floating through the window and being dumped unceremoniously on the floor. Picking himself up, he shot Potter a dirty look as he dusted of the snow and ice that had clung to his cloak. Looking around the small room, Draco found that the sole chair was taken, so he closed the window and sat on the sill instead.

Harry broke the silence, "So, to what do I owe the displeasure of this intrusion?"

Draco grimaced, "Straight to the point, eh Potter? Typical bloody Gryff, no tact whatsoever." He took a deep breath and glanced heavenward, as if fortifying himself for what was to come. "I need a favour from you. A big one."

Harry stared at him a moment, incredulous. Then he burst out laughing, "Yeah, right. I'm the last person _you'd_ ask for a favour. Pull the other one, Malfoy." The Boy Who Lived found himself on the end of a very distinct look that told him exactly how much Draco was not joking. He stopped laughing. "Go on, then."

Suddenly uncertain as to where to begin, Draco glanced around Potter's room. It was the typical seventh year's room: a single four poster bed dominated the floor space leaving a narrow wardrobe and desk to compete for space with the substantial bookcases that lined the rest of the wall space. Harry's broom lay was suspended from ornate hooks above the desk. The only decoration was a small tapestry hanging on the back of the door showing the foundation of Hogwarts, Godric Gryffindor naturally prominent while Salazar Slytherin was almost a shadow in the background. At the base of this tapestry unicorns played in a glade, complete with waterfall.

The perfect place to start: the beginning. "Potter, how much of the Forbidden Forest have you explored? And don't try to tell me that you've been no further than we went in First Year."

Harry shrugged, "Some, but mostly the main trails and around the edges. The deeper you go the darker and more dangerous it gets."

"Heh. You never went far enough then. _It's always darkest before the dawn._ I've never heard anything that describes that forest better. About half a day in you find yourself in the most beautiful place I've ever seen. I think in spring the Unicorns give birth there, I've seen them there from time to time." Draco was quiet for a moment, absorbed in his memories. When he began speaking again, it was almost as if he'd forgotten Harry was in the room. "I go there when things around here get to be too much. The pool by the waterfall just draws the tension right out of you."

"At the beginning of the year, I was under a lot of pressure from Father. He'd been on my back all summer about the glory of the Dark Lord, and I thought I'd have a reprieve once I got here. I would bury myself in my studies and forget that Tom Riddle had ever existed." Draco snorted derisively, "I should've known better."

Suddenly, he was staring Harry straight in the eye, an intense look in his own grey ones. "There are three types of people in Slytherin, these days, Potter, and none of them are your friends. You can tell them apart by their faces. The worried haven't joined up. Yet. The terrified joined to please someone else, and the rest..." Draco shuddered, "The rest like what they've become. And they all want something from me. Protection, or leadership, or... to tell you the truth I don't actually know what the fence-sitters want." He shook his head. "I think they worry me the most." 

Harry looked at his rival in what he hoped was an encouraging manner, "Because you know that they're waiting for you to show them the way. And if guiding them to _him_ is troubling you, then your decision is already made."

Draco suddenly stood away from his seat at the window, and started pacing furiously. "Damn, you Potter. Damn your bloody Gryffindor mentality. You just had to go and make this harder, didn't you. Don't you think I don't know how many lives are resting on my choices? Damn you!" He shot Harry a murderous glare and went back to stare outside at the raging storm.

Harry was shocked, to say the least. That was not the response he'd been hoping for. There was something more going on here...


	3. Waxing Poetic

Draco seemed to calm, and he continued his narrative as though he'd never stopped. "By the end of September, I'd had enough. I couldn't even find a few moments' peace in my own dorm. At the first opportunity I went to the glade to try and sort it all out. Just grabbed my broom and took off. I don't know how long I was there, but it was sometime in the afternoon when... I'd been just sitting on this rock shelf behind the falls, just watching the spray, not really seeing anything. A dragon could've walked by and I wouldn't have known."

Harry nodded in understanding, "I tend to watch clouds, myself."

"Looking for silver linings, eh Potter?" Draco smirked. "Anyway, when I came out of it, I realised that I wasn't alone. There was a pile of clothes near the water's edge, and they couldn't be mine because I always stash my stuff in the hollow of an old oak." Draco gave Harry a very wry look. "Young unicorns have a peculiar sense of fun."

While Harry laughed at that revelation, Draco continued his narrative. "I was looking everywhere I could without showing myself, but there was no one there. And then she was." He leaned back against the wall and looked heavenward, "My God, she was beautiful. Surfacing with more grace than any mer'ai, and more alluring than any veela could ever hope to be. Silky soft hair like a rose kissed by the morning dew, skin.."

Harry interrupted him with a look of mock pain, "All right! I get the idea! You don't have to start spouting poetry to convince me you fell in love."

"What I did was fall in and knock myself out on a rock. When I came to, she had me laid out on the shore and must have been doing that muggle thing to revive me, 'cause when I opened my eyes her face was right above mine...and that was when I fell in love with her. That she could save my life when I'd done nothing but blindly hate because of who she was, it changed me." Draco grinned wryly, "Of course it took some time before she was convinced, but by first snow..."

"She reciprocated. Congratulations." Harry's voice was drier than a martini. "Now are you going to stop beating around the bush and tell me who she is? And more importantly what this favour you need is. I kinda like that part."

Draco looked at Harry in disbelief, "Bloody hell, I know you're only a Gryffindor, Potter, but surely not even you're that daft. I practically came out and told you her name! There aren't many redheads in this school, and only one of them is female!" He ignored the gradually dawning comprehension in Harry's eyes and ploughed on, "I'll give you a few more clues: about yay high, a half dozen brothers, followed you around like a..."

Draco found himself pressed against the wall, his toes dangling a full foot above the floor. "How dare you? How _dare _you come in here pretending to want help, and then brag of making a conquest of my best friend's little sister!? You _Bastard_!"

Draco gave as disdainful a look as he could given his position, and gave his best imitation of Snape. "I assure you Potter, if Ginny were nothing more than another notch on my bedpost, I'd be humiliating her in front of the whole school, not myself in front of you. Now, put me down!" 

Harry spent seeming eternity, glaring at Draco, searching his face for the usual deceit. He found none. Roughly, Harry let him down, "I'm not entirely sure if I believe you or not, Malfoy, but I do know this: hurt her and you'll wish for a Dementor's Kiss!"

"Which brings us back to why I'm here. The favour I need from you. I need you to protect her, not from me, but herself. Tomorrow will be a very bad day for Ginny, and she might say the wrong thing thinking she's defending me. She's been hinting lately that we should go public, which would be a _very_ bad idea, considering what will happen tomorrow."

"What happens tomorrow?" Harry asked grimly.

"Tomorrow I become Voldemort's newest servant."

_A/N Yes, I know. I'm evil. But that's beside the point. Review and you'll get more chapters faster, and thanks to my new beta VioletJersey and Isabelle for the inspiration her fic "The Island of Galleno" provided._


	4. The Devil is in the Details

Harry stepped back, his anger ebbing, giving way to confusion. "But I thought...."

"Thought what? That I was going to stay here like a good boy? That I was going to join the team?" Draco's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "Get real, Potter. How long do you think I'd live if I told my father, never mind Voldemort, that he can take his plans for genocide and sod off?"

It took a second for Harry to answer that. "About as long as it takes for one of your housemates to slip a knife between your ribs." Harry grimaced as he realised just how futile a gesture that would be. How...Gryffindor.

"Congratulations. We'll have you thinking like a Slytherin yet." Draco smirked at the thought of the Poster Boy for Gryffindor thinking having Slytherin thoughts.

Harry, meanwhile, was shaking his head. "It won't work. I've known you for more than six years, Malfoy, and while I consider you capable of many things, murder and torture aren't among them. The first time you refuse _him_, you're a dead man."

"That won't be a problem. You see, I won't be me. Or rather I will be. See?"

Harry looked blank for a moment, then said, "I think I speak for all of Britain when I say, huh?"

"You're right. _I'm _not a killer. But by changing my memories and altering my personality, the new me will be. This Draco the Death Eater will do anything his master tells him to, while the real me is buried back here somewhere," Draco tapped the back of his head, "Oblivious to everything."

"The Persona Charm?" Harry frowned, "They'll spot it a mile away. Snape once told me that one of the side effects of receiving the Dark Mark is that all enchantments get stripped away."

Draco nodded, "Which is why we'll be using something else instead that has nothing to do with magic. Some muggle trick Dumbledore got out of an old muggle war movie. Hip-knots or something."

"Hypnosis? Hypnosis is going to bring down Voldemort?" Harry seemed skeptical. "And here I thought it was just a party trick to make people act like chickens, or quack like a duck."

"Some of us are a little more mature, Potter." Draco sneered. "Anyway, Voldemort's plan is this. Before year's end he will launch an assault on Hogwarts, to _remove the mudblood infection_. But before he does, you will be captured, so he can watch you suffer over the deaths of your friends. He will laugh at your misery as Hogwarts is burned to the foundations."

Harry clenched his fists and growled, "**No! I will not submit!**"

"You will." Draco was the quintessence of calm amidst Harry's tempest.

Harry slashed his fist through the air as if holding a sword, "**Death First!**"

Draco began to advance on his longstanding rival, "Then be prepared to stand by and watch everything you hold dear _burn!_" 

Draco's voice grew more menacing with each step until finally the Gryffindor seeker could go no further and fell back onto the bed. 

"You will be caught, and you will make it easy for them. You will suffer humiliation and pain, and then you shall watch as the Death Eaters attack this very castle. Then when they are easily defeated by the _noble _defenders, Voldemort shall take you back and torture you in retribution. Just you, him," Draco took a step back and opened his arms wide, "And me."

Gesturing towards Harry, Draco continued his recitation of The Plan. "Then you give me the phrase that unlocks my mind," He then pointed towards himself, "And Voldemort finds himself on the wrong end of my wand. The world is saved, you get to play hero and I get the girl."

Harry was shocked, to say the least. Both by Draco's tirade and the audacity of this new plan. On the surface it seemed feasible, but as someone once said; 'The devil is in the details.' Perhaps he should get a few of these details straight before committing himself. "This code-phrase I'm supposed to say, what is it?"

Draco smiled softly, the same way he had when describing a certain girl in the forest, "Ginny sends her love."


End file.
